Change of Heart? The Dean of Valuation Describes Bitcoin as Millennials’ Gold

The Indian professor Aswath Damodaran opined that bitcoin is the equivalent of gold for young investors. According to him, millennials do not find the precious metal that tempting as their parents and grandparents and prefer to allocate their money in the primary cryptocurrency.

BTC Is What Gold Was 50-100 Years Ago

In a recent interview for CNBC, the professor of finance at the Stern School of Business at New York University – Aswath Damodaran – shared his thoughts on the recent rally of most virtual currencies, especially bitcoin.

He argued that the asset class’s USD value heads north because a significant number of investors (10-15%) are willing to diversify their portfolios and choose the crypto market as an option.

Speaking about BTC, Damodaran – also known as “the Dean of Valuation” – described it as “millennial gold.” In his opinion, the yellow metal is an obsolete investment instrument for most of the youngsters who now find the digital currency as an attractive solution:

“If you are 35-years-old, and you have lost faith, you are no longer going to buy gold. That was for your parents and your grandparents. You are going to buy Bitcoin.”

The professor noted that BTC has not only swapped gold as a store of value but also real estate. He reminded that 50-100 years ago, people used to allocate their wealth in these assets, while now the cryptocurrency took the lead.

Subsequently, Damodaran drew the best-case scenario for bitcoin. He opined that if the digital asset becomes more stable and less volatile, it will gain global acceptance.

Damodaran’s U-Turn

While highlighting bitcoin as an attractive investment solution among young investors now, the professor was not that kind in previous comments.

As CryptoPotato reported roughly a month ago, Damodaran said the digital asset is not an example of good currency as most people do not choose it as a payment method. He went even further, stating that it “failed miserably:”

“A good currency, in my view, is one that [is] used to buy coffee, buy your house, buy a car, and on that count, bitcoin has failed, and not just failed, it’s failed miserably.”

Contrary to what the Indian noted in his recent interview about the correlation between gold and BTC, a month ago, he argued that the yellow metal is the true store of value because it holds its price during financial catastrophes while the virtual asset is a highly risky investment tool.

Featured Image Courtesy of The Economic Times